Fond farewell to Pat Cox, one of our local legends

The Newport-Mesa community lost a jewel of an individual recently

when Pat Cox passed away quietly in her sleep at age 81.

A treasured friend, mother, grandmother and dedicated volunteer,

she was the daughter of Newport Beach industrialist Richard Emison, a

three-time past president at Santa Ana Country Club and former owner

of the highly successful Santa Ana Lumber Company, the area’s first

lumberyard.

“She was a socialite of the first water,” her longtime neighbor,

Bob Nichols, said, referring to the myriad parties and fund-raisers

Mrs. Cox would host at her house, the cherished “Duck Farm” at the

end of Mesa Drive overlooking the Back Bay.

A Stanford graduate and former World War II officer, Mrs. Cox was

capable of being a tough cookie. Very opinionated. Strong-willed.

Loved the American flag hanging every day in front of her three-acre

house, which she built with her husband, Alvin Stewart Cox, in 1949.

He died about a decade ago.

Mrs. Cox’s first civilian job was Recreation Director at the

Balboa Bay Club, one of the most happening places in town in the

1950s. She was a top-ranked tennis player and a 3-handicap golfer who

won four women’s club championships at Santa Ana Country Club, where

she met her husband. She captured her first title in 1947 as Pat

Emison before getting married, then won club championships again in

1952, ’61 and ’62 as Mrs. Al Cox.

“She was a very independent and strong woman. She was a feminist

before it became a term,” said Gary Pickens, who worked for her at

the “Duck Farm” in her final years, taking care of the geese, ducks,

chickens and rabbits.

Added Nichols: “She spent all of her time helping people. Up until

the last three or four years, she was into everything ... she used to

be involved in all kinds of social activities. Her picture used to be

in the [Daily Pilot] all the time. She was a very nice looking lady.

Very attractive. She knew everybody.”

Said Al Hobson, a neighbor of 45 years: “She had a lot of friends.

She did a lot of good work. They attended St. Andrews [Presbyterian

Church in Newport Beach]. If there’s any kind of service for her,

there will probably be 9,000 people there.”

In the twilight of her life, she became known to some in the local

golf community as simply Marianne Towersey’s mother, when the

reigning Santa Ana Country Club women’s champion and senior amateur

golf star began collecting Tea Cup Classic trophies and filling up

the pages of the sports section.

“I remember Pat was really stoked when Marianne won [her first Tea

Cup title in 1998 on her home course],” said Pickens, whose late

father, Wendell, is a Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Famer.

Santa Ana Country Club Director of Golf Mike Reehl said he “knew

her forever ... she was a sweet, sweet lady.”

*

Geoff Cochrane, who started his career in the bag room at Mesa

Verde Country Club in 1993 and later became an assistant golf

professional under head pro Tom Sargent, who encouraged him to

achieve his lofty goals, was promoted to head pro earlier this year

at Santa Ana Country Club.

Cochrane, who began at Santa Ana in December 2001 as an assistant

under Reehl, is only the club’s third head pro since 1961, when

legendary former Director of Golf Gerald Hall took over as head pro

for Paul McMullen.

*

It was quite a week during the Toshiba Senior Classic for Dave

Wooten, President of International Bay Clubs, Inc., which owns the

Newport Beach Country Club, site of the PGA Champions Tour event.

Wooten, who played golf in the Toshiba Senior Classic Pro-Ams and

enjoyed the spectacular weekend weather, learned the news of his

first grandson being born -- Lucas Winthrop Thiel, who arrived March

19 at 6 pounds, 11 ounces to his daughter, Laurie.

“I found out just a few hours before we teed off with Hugh

Baiocchi [in the Toshiba Classic Pro-Am],” said Wooten, who also has

a granddaughter.

Wooten was the country club’s point man in May 1997 when the

company announced it would no longer host the Toshiba Classic if the

managing operator at the time [International Sports and Event

Marketing] was not replaced by the PGA Tour. It was a groundbreaking

move, according to the tour, and perhaps risky, but it paid off,

because since Hoag Hospital has taken over as manager, the event has

become the most philanthropic stop on the tour, raising in excess of

$5.7 million in six years.

The Toshiba Senior Classic enjoyed another banner year in

charitable giving this year, donating $1 million in net proceeds for

the fourth consecutive year, the first on the tour to accomplish the

feat.